Christian Research Institute Journal

Whither the Watchtower?

An Unfolding Crisis for Jehovah's Witnesses

by David A. Reed

from the Christian Research Journal,
Summer 1993, page 24.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot Miller.

Summary

Newly installed Watchtower president Milton G. Henschel, 73,
has inherited two major problems from his predecessor, Frederick
W. Franz. When Franz died on December 22, 1992 at age 99 he left
in power a Governing Body mostly in their 80s and 90s, who, in
turn, are dying off without eligible successors. Franz also left
in place an official dating system that pointed Jehovah's
Witnesses (JWs) to 1975 as the time Christ's millennial rule
should have begun. Turning from these dead ends will require a
major revision of JW beliefs. With new doctrine and new
leadership up for grabs, Jehovah's Witnesses face the potential
of severe internal upheaval.

Although it put him in charge of a corporation with real
estate holdings in New York City alone valued at $186 million,[1]
and comparable properties elsewhere, the appointment of Milton G.
Henschel as president of the Watch Tower[2] Bible and Tract
Society made few headlines. Even the Jehovah's Witness (JW)
sect's principal magazine, The Watchtower, confined its mention
of the new leader to a single sentence at the end of former
president Frederick W. Franz's two-page obituary: "On December
30, 1992, Brother Milton G. Henschel was chosen as the Society's
fifth president, to succeed Brother Franz."[3] But the switch in
leadership is of immense significance to Witnesses, as it
portends convulsive changes for the 11.5-million-strong[4] sect
-- namely, doctrinal reversals and organizational restructuring
on a magnitude not seen since the shakeup which followed the
death of Watchtower founder Charles Taze Russell in 1916.

CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL

Russell, born in Pittsburgh in 1852 and raised a Presbyterian,
was 16 years old and a member of the Congregational church when he
came under the influence of Advent Christian Church preacher Jonas
Wendell in 1868. Nearly a generation had passed since the "Great
Disappointment" of 1844 when Christ failed to return as predicted
by Baptist lay preacher William Miller, and the successors of the
Millerite movement had regrouped and regained respectability as
Second Adventists (a family of denominations including the
Seventh-Day Adventists and such Sunday-sabbath observing groups as
the Advent Christian Church and the Life and Advent Union). Now
certain Adventists were pointing forward to another date, 1874,
with the same expectations. But that year, too, came and went
without the promised Second Advent.

Russell was still sharing fellowship with disappointed
Adventists in 1876 when he learned that a small Adventist magazine,
Herald of the Morning, was affirming that Christ did indeed
return in the autumn of 1874 -- only invisibly -- and that
believers would be raptured three-and-one-half years later in the
spring of 1878. With money from his successful men's clothing
store, Russell at age 24 provided financial backing for the
struggling magazine. In return, publisher and editor Nelson H.
Barbour of Rochester, New York, appointed him an assistant editor.

When the expected Rapture failed to occur, Barbour came up with
"new light" on this and other doctrines. Russell, however, began
opposing Barbour. In the summer of 1879 he made a formal break,
using his nearly three years of experience with Herald of the
Morning -- and a borrowed copy of Barbour's mailing list -- to
start his own magazine, Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's
Presence.

Russell quickly repudiated the "Adventist" label and fashioned
a distinct denomination of his own. Followers referred to
themselves as "Bible Students" and named their organization the
International Bible Students Association (IBSA), but outsiders
called them "Russellites."

The Watch Tower and Russell's books retained much of
Barbour's eschatological chronology, focusing on 1874 as the
beginning of Christ's invisible "presence," and predicting other
end-times events by calculating from that date. He also
incorporated measurements of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in his
chronological calculations. Calling it "God's Stone Witness and
Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt," he figured a year for each
inch of measurement in various internal passageways, and used these
numbers to predict that believers would be raptured in 1910 and
that the world would end in 1914.[5]

In 1882 Russell began leading Watch Tower readers away from
orthodox theology. After Trinitarian assistant editor John Paton
broke with Russell and ceased to be listed on the masthead, Russell
openly rejected the doctrine of the Trinity as "totally
unscriptural."[6]

The Bible Students viewed Russell himself as the "faithful and
wise servant" of Matthew 24:45 and as "the Laodicean Messenger,"
God's seventh and final spokesman to the Christian church. But he
lived to see the failure of various dates he had predicted for the
Rapture, and finally died on October 31, 1916, more than two years
after the world was supposed to have ended. Followers buried
Russell beneath a headstone identifying him as "the Laodicean
Messenger," and erected next to his grave a massive stone pyramid
emblazoned with the cross and crown symbol he was fond of, and also
with the name "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society." (The pyramid
still stands off Cemetery Lane in Ross, a northern Pittsburgh
suburb, where it serves as a tourist attraction.)

JOSEPH FRANKLIN RUTHERFORD

According to instructions Russell left behind, his successor to
the presidency would share power with the Watch Tower corporation's
board of directors, whom Russell had appointed "for life." But
former vice president Joseph Franklin ("Judge") Rutherford noted
that the formality of re-electing the directors at an annual
meeting of the corporation had been omitted, and he used this
technically to unseat the majority of the Watch Tower directors
without calling a membership vote. He even had a subordinate summon
the police into the Society's Brooklyn headquarters offices to
break up their board meeting and evict them from the premises.[7]

After securing the headquarters complex and the sect's
corporate entities, Rutherford turned his attention to the rest of
the organization. By gradually replacing locally elected elders
with his own appointees, he managed to transform a loose collection
of semiautonomous, democratically run congregations into a
tight-knit organizational machine controlled from his office. Some
local congregations broke away, forming such Russellite splinter
groups as the Chicago Bible Students, the Dawn Bible Students, and
the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement, all of which continue to
this day. But most Bible Students remained under his control, and
Rutherford renamed them "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931 to
distinguish them from these other groups.

Meanwhile, he shifted the sect's emphasis from individual
character development to public witnessing work. By 1927
door-to-door literature distribution had become an essential
activity required of all members.[8] The literature consisted
primarily of attacks against government, Prohibition, "big
business," and the Roman Catholic church. Rutherford also forged a
huge radio network and took to the airwaves, exploiting populist
and anti-Catholic sentiments to draw thousands of additional
converts. His vitriolic attacks blaring from the loudspeakers of
sound cars also drew down upon the Witnesses mob violence and
government persecution in many parts of the world.

Rutherford largely avoided end-times prophecies after the
failure of his prediction that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be
resurrected in 1925.[9] In fact, referring to that prophetic
failure he later admitted, "I made an ass of myself."[10]

NATHAN HOMER KNORR

Vice President Nathan Homer Knorr inherited the presidency upon
Rutherford's death in 1942. Doctrinal matters, however, were left
largely in the hands of Frederick W. Franz, who joined the sect
under Russell and had been serving at the Brooklyn headquarters
since 1920. Lacking the personal magnetism and charisma of Russell
and Rutherford, Knorr focused followers' devotion on the
organization rather than on himself.

A superb administrator, he initiated training programs to
transform members into effective recruiters. Instead of carrying a
portable phonograph from house to house and playing recordings of
"Judge" Rutherford's lectures, the average Jehovah's Witness began
receiving instruction on how to give persuasive sermons at people's
doorsteps.

Meanwhile Fred Franz worked to restore faith in the sect's
eschatological teachings. His revised chronology moved Christ's
invisible return from 1874 to 1914.[11] And, during the 1960s, the
Society's publications began pointing to the year 1975 as the
likely time for Armageddon and the end of the world.[12]

Knorr's training programs for proselytizing, plus Franz's
apocalyptic projections for 1975, combined to produce rapid growth
in membership, pushing meeting attendance at JW Kingdom Halls from
around 100,000 in 1941 to just under 5 million in 1975.

During the 1970s changes took place at Watchtower headquarters
in regard to presidential power. First, it became accepted in
theory that the Christian church (which Jehovah's Witnesses see
their organization as encompassing) should not be under one-man
rule, but rather should be governed by a body similar to the twelve
apostles. The seven-member board of directors of the Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania had previously been
portrayed as fulfilling this role. But in 1971 an expanded
Governing Body was created with a total of eleven members,
including the seven directors.

This new Governing Body was displayed as further evidence of
the sect's being the one true church, but in actuality Knorr
continued to rule Jehovah's Witnesses much as Russell and
Rutherford had done before him. This changed, however, in 1975 when
Governing Body members began insisting on exercising the powers
granted to them in theory that had never really been theirs in
practice. Over the objections of Fred Franz the body he had been
instrumental in creating actually began governing, so that when
Knorr passed away in 1977 Franz inherited an emasculated
presidency.

FREDRICK W. FRANZ

Franz also inherited an organization troubled by discontent
over the obvious failure of his prophecies of the world's end in
the autumn of 1975. Even at the Brooklyn headquarters little groups
meeting privately for Bible study were beginning to question not
only the 1914-based chronology that produced the 1975 deadline, but
also the related teaching that the "heavenly calling" of the bride
of Christ (identified as the "144,000" of Revelation 14) ended in
1935, with new converts after that date consigned to an earthly
paradise for their eternal reward.

The hitherto fast-growing sect actually began losing members
for the first time in decades, as people who had expected
Armageddon in 1975 became disillusioned. When membership loss grew
into the hundreds of thousands[13] -- a figure somewhat masked by
new conversions -- President Franz and the conservative majority in
the Governing Body took action. In the spring of 1980 they
initiated a crackdown on dissidents, breaking up the independent
Bible study groups at headquarters, and forming "judicial
committees" to have those seen as ringleaders put on trial for
"disloyalty" and "apostasy."

By the time this purge culminated in the forced resignation and
subsequent excommunication of the president's nephew and fellow
Governing Body member Raymond V. Franz (a development Time
magazine found worthy of a full-page article),[14] a siege
mentality took hold on the worldwide organization. Witnesses who
left were denounced as disloyal and were ordered "shunned," with
former friends forbidden to say as much as "a simple 'Hello'" to
them.[15] And those who remained were commanded to "avoid
independent thinking...questioning the counsel that is provided by
God's visible organization."[16] Thus, although Frederick W. Franz
served as the sect's chief theologian for some 50 years -- from the
start of Knorr's presidency in 1942 until his own death last year,
he eventually found himself resorting to a mini-Inquisition to keep
his doctrines in force.

MILTON G. HENSCHEL: THE NEW PRESIDENT

Milton G. Henschel's selection as fifth Watchtower president on
December 30, 1992, is truly significant for the Jehovah's
Witnesses. At first glance the choice of a 72-year-old conservative
for the post may seem to presage a continuation of the status quo,
with little change in the offing. But a closer look reveals this
appointment as the conservative old guard's last stand -- an
indication that radical change in the sect's leadership and
doctrines is imminent.

At age 72 Henschel is the second-youngest member of the
Governing Body, and he was selected to lead by men several years
older than he is. The youngest on the Body is 69, two others are in
their mid-70s, and the remainder are in their 80s and 90s. With
members in their 80s known to sleep through meetings and to vote on
matters on being awakened,[17] the Body is losing its ability to
provide purposeful and decisive leadership, and Henschel was no
doubt chosen in part due to his having vitality others lacked.

Younger Replacements Disallowed

Recognizing their own infirmities, Governing Body members have
recently arranged for younger men to assist with day-to-day
work.[18] But final decisions on major issues take place when the
Body meets alone behind closed doors. Why not appoint some younger
men to replace or supplement those who have grown too old to care
for such responsibilities? Here lies the key to the Watchtower
Society's present leadership crisis: long-standing doctrine
precludes appointment of younger men to the Governing Body.

The reason for this is that Witnesses baptized after "Judge"
Rutherford ended the "heavenly calling" of the 144,000 in 1935 are
automatically assigned to the "great crowd," destined to live
forever on earth. This is a secondary class of believers who
receive salvation on the coattails of the above "body of Christ,"
but who are not born again or anointed and hence are not part of
this "faithful and discreet slave class" from whom leaders must be
selected. Since JWs generally baptize converts as adults or
preteens, and leaders need to have been baptized before 1935, only
men born during the early 1920s or before can be leaders -- men who
are currently around 70 years of age or older.

Changing the makeup of the Governing Body to include younger
men would require abandoning the Watchtower's key teaching about
the "faithful and discreet slave class" -- the very foundation of
the sect's claim to authority. The teaching is that after returning
invisibly in 1914, Christ "came to inspect the spiritual temple in
the spring of 1918."[19] Among all the professed believers in all
the churches of Christendom he found only those associated with the
Watchtower Society serving him faithfully like the slave in the
parable of Matthew 24:45-47. So, "in 1919 he" placed them in charge
of "all the spiritual assets on earth that have become Christ's
property in connection with his authority as heavenly King."[20]

Since then those assets have mushroomed into a worldwide
organization with 11.5 million people attending its worship
services. And the doctrine concerning the faithful and discreet
slave has served well to keep these millions in compliant
subjection to the leadership class allegedly placed in charge by
Christ himself. That class, however, has been decreasing in numbers
since the "final ones of the anointed 144,000 were gathered in,"
before 1935.[21] Today, fewer than 8,700 remain alive who claim[22]
to be among the living "remnant" of this number. Most of these are
women, automatically barred from leadership roles, and the rest are
men primarily of the same age as present Governing Body members. (A
few younger individuals profess to be of the remnant -- allowable
under the understanding that God might appoint replacements for
members who proved unfaithful after 1935 -- but younger claimants
are generally viewed with skepticism by fellow Witnesses.)

So, the pool of eligible candidates for the Governing Body is
fast drying up, as male Witnesses baptized before 1935 die off or
become incapacitated by age. Soon there will be none left. There is
no provision in JW doctrine, however, for a switch to other
leadership prior to Armageddon. New doctrine will have to be
invented -- not simply a minor adjustment, but a totally new basis
for declaring certain individuals eligible to take control.

A Tangled Doctrinal Web

What makes this all the more complex is the fact that the
current doctrine regarding leadership is tightly intertwined with
the alleged fulfillment of all sorts of end-times prophecies.
Together they form a closely-woven fabric of interdependent
teachings -- one or two of the teachings cannot be altered without
destroying the pattern woven throughout the fabric.

As Jehovah's Witnesses see it, the 21-year period from 1914
through 1935 brought the following: Luke 21:24 was fulfilled with
"the end of the Gentile times...in the autumn of 1914."[23] Then,
"Christ was enthroned in heaven as King of the Kingdom in that same
year, 1914."[24] His invisible "presence" on the earth immediately
began,[25] as evidenced by "wars on an unprecedented scale,"
famines, earthquakes, and worldwide preaching by Jehovah's
Witnesses.[26] Also in 1914 the fulfillment of Revelation 12:7-9
occurred with Jesus Christ, in his identity as Michael the
Archangel, casting Satan down to the earth.[27]

Next, the year 1918 marked "the start of the heavenly
resurrection" with dead "anointed ones" of the "144,000 who belong
to Christ" being made alive "with Christ Jesus in the spirit
realm."[28] Also, Christ "came to inspect the spiritual temple in
the spring of 1918," in fulfillment of Malachi 3:1-5 and 1 Peter
4:17.[29]

Following that, "starting in 1919, angels under Jesus'
direction separated the wheat class of spirit-begotten anointed
ones on earth."[30] And here, "in 1919 he pronounced that faithful
approved slave class happy," giving them "a promotion" to the
position they now enjoy.[31] Prophecies in Revelation concerning
the opening of the seven seals and the sounding of the seven
trumpets were fulfilled during the period that followed; for
example, the "sequence of trumpet blasts" when "special resolutions
were featured at seven conventions from 1922 to 1928."[32] And
then, by 1935, "the final ones of the anointed 144,000 were
gathered in," and the gathering of a "great crowd" to live on earth
was begun.[33]

So, it is not a matter of simply replacing 1914 with another
date. All of the related events and alleged prophetic fulfillments
would also have to be reinterpreted and moved ahead to other dates.
As the poet wrote, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we
practice to deceive!"[34]

"This Generation" Is Passing Away

The leadership eligibility doctrine is not the only JW teaching
that is becoming outdated and thus forcing the organization toward
a major revision. Besides losing to old age and death the men of
the "slave class" responsible for giving them "their spiritual food
at the proper time,"[35] Witnesses are also faced with the problem
that some of that "food" itself has gone past its shelf life. A
prime example is the prophecy the Watchtower Society is currently
feeding its followers regarding the end of the world.

The masthead of Awake! magazine repeats this prophecy in each
issue by proclaiming "the Creator's promise of a peaceful and
secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914
passes away."[36] Simple arithmetic reveals that those events took
place 79 years ago, and that people who saw them take place are
fast dying off. Awake! of October 8, 1968, commented that "Jesus
was obviously speaking about those who were old enough to witness
with understanding what took place....Even if we presume that
youngsters 15 years of age would be perceptive enough to realize
the import of what happened in 1914, it would still make the
youngest of 'this generation' nearly 70 years old today" (emphasis
in original).[37] Adding the additional 25 years that have passed
since those words were published in 1968 would make "this
generation" nearly 95 years old now, in 1993.

While the predictions about 1975 were still being promoted, JW
publications cited the reference in Psalm 90:10 to man's
"threescore years and ten," or "fourscore" years for those with
special strength, to show that "a reasonable time-length for a
generation" was 70 or 80 years,[38] and that therefore "this
generation" would "pass away" during the 1970s. According to that
standard the prophecy still printed in each Awake! magazine has
already failed. So, with its doctrinal framework built upon 1914
stretched to the breaking point, and with its irreplaceable elderly
leaders dying off, the Watchtower Society will soon be forced to
change both.

Convulsions and Chaos Imminent?

Reminiscent of the crisis following Pastor Russell's death in
1916, the present situation holds the potential of throwing
Jehovah's Witnesses into doctrinal convulsions and organizational
chaos. As we saw above, Watchtower authority was originally based
on the claim that Christ returned invisibly in 1874, appointed C.
T. Russell as his "faithful and discreet slave," and would bring
the end of the world in 1914. After Russell's prediction about 1914
failed and this "last messenger" himself died in 1916, there was no
doctrinal basis for anyone to succeed him. An organizational
free-for-all ensued in which new president J. F. Rutherford waged
open warfare against the Watchtower corporation's board of
directors. Rutherford's victory resulted in the reversal of a
number of doctrines the Watchtower Society had taught under
Russell, including Russell's posthumous removal as "faithful and
discreet slave" and the pyramid Russell advertised as "God's stone
Witness" being renamed "the Devil's Bible."

Since there is no doctrinal basis for a successor to today's
aging Governing Body, the sect will soon face problems similar to
those Rutherford encountered. Dying members of the Governing Body
will have to be replaced with men not eligible under today's
arrangement, and doctrines attached to expired dates will have to
be replaced with new ideas that may prove unpalatable to large
segments of the organization.

Henschel's Challenge

Will new president Milton Henschel be the one to initiate such
drastic changes? Time alone will tell, but insiders portray him as
a man much like Nathan Knorr -- an administrator rather than a
doctrinal innovator. No new visionary has yet appeared to take the
place Fred Franz occupied during Knorr's administration and his
own. Moreover, Governing Body member Raymond Franz reveals Henschel
as one who routinely rejects change and upholds the status quo on
administrative matters.[39]

But Franz also observes that Henschel often admitted being too
busy to read proposed drafts of Watchtower articles that came
before his Publishing Committee for approval. In fact, Franz notes
that Henschel had difficulty keeping up with published Watchtower
articles and seldom bothered to read the Awake! magazine at
all.[40] This leaves open the possibility of doctrinal changes
initiated by others slipping by him unnoticed, even receiving his
unwitting approval in materials he finds himself too busy to
read.[41]

With leadership of a multi-billion dollar corporation up for
grabs, as well as control over the lives of millions of followers,
the stakes are high -- comparable to rulership over a
small-to-mid-size nation. With the obligation to redefine
eligibility and appoint new leaders resting in the hands of
stubbornly conservative yet increasingly frail old men, a struggle
is possible among younger headquarters staffers who see themselves
as potential heirs to power.

However the change occurs -- whether Milton Henschel and his
elderly associates act now voluntarily, or whether they postpone
the inevitable until they become weak enough for others to force it
upon them -- the organizational and doctrinal upheaval will of
necessity be drastic. Indeed, shock waves radiating from Brooklyn
will no doubt cause turmoil in JW congregations worldwide.

These forebodings among Jehovah's Witnesses today, as well as
the parallels they call to mind from earlier Watchtower history,
highlight a number of scriptural caveats applying to the sect. For
example, the psalmist warns, "Do not put your trust in princes, in
mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return
to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing" (Ps.
146:3-4 NIV). JWs have ignored this wisdom, diminishing Jesus
Christ and attributing great authority to their organization, only
to find now that their leaders' plans and teachings are passing
away as the men themselves die off.

Shortly now, the Witnesses will once again find themselves with
a host of "new truths" to accept, discarding as "old light" many of
the beliefs their faith has been built on. As in the past, most of
them will no doubt march off obediently in the new direction. But
some among them, hopefully a large minority, will be shocked into
wakefulness and a genuine quest for the truth by the coming
organizational and doctrinal reversals.

Who Is the Faithful and Wise Servant?

The key doctrine Witnesses will be asked to change their minds
about (again) is the identity of the faithful and wise servant of
Matthew 24:45. In a rare review of back-and-forth doctrinal changes
over the years, the 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses comments
that "in 1881...it was understood that the 'servant' God used to
dispense spiritual food was a class." Later, it continues, the
teaching was adopted "that C. T. Russell himself was the 'faithful
and wise servant.'" And finally it concludes, "In February 1927
this erroneous thought that Russell himself was the 'faithful and
wise servant' was cleared up" (p. 88). With Russell in the grave
for a decade, the previously rejected "old light" was restored as
"new light," and that "servant" was reinterpreted again to be a
class of anointed believers. But that class is now dying off, just
as Russell did, leaving followers with the need to find still
another interpretation.

Outside observers, of course, recognize Jesus' words at Matthew
24:45 as neither an appointment of a special individual such as C.
T. Russell, nor an appointment of a "class" of people such as the
pre-1935 JWs from whom Watchtower leaders are currently selected.
Rather than read into the verse a divine commission to any group or
individual who would later pose problems by dying off the scene,
unindoctrinated readers see in it the Lord's exhortation to each
Christian to be "faithful" and "wise." And this exhortation
especially applies in the matter He discussed in the same context,
namely, avoiding "false prophets" who would mislead others with the
claim that Christ had already returned unseen, out of sight in some
hidden spot. "Believe it not," Jesus admonished (Matt. 24:23-26).
And that should be the response of all informed Bible readers to
the claim that Christ returned invisibly in 1914 and selected
Watchtower leaders to rule the earthly realm of his kingdom.

1 Mary B. W. Tabor, "Looking Beyond Brooklyn Heights toward
Heaven," New York Times, 29 Nov. 1992, 46.
2 "Watchtower" is written as a single word in the name of the
sect's New York corporation, but as two words in the name of the
Pennsylvania parent corporation. Similarly, the principal JW
magazine originally featured "Watch Tower" as two words, but
changed it to one word in 1931. JWs still use both forms, thus
explaining the appearance of both in this article.
3 "Rewarded With 'the Crown of Life,'" The Watchtower, 15 March
1993, 31.
4 Peak 1992 meeting attendance reported in chart titled "1992
Service Year Report of Jehovah's Witnesses Worldwide," The
Watchtower, 1 Jan. 1993, 15. Of these, about 4.5 million are
considered full members -- that is, baptized Witnesses actively
engaging in door-to-door preaching.
5 Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3 (Allegheny, Pennsylvania:
Watch Tower, 1891) (1903 edition), 362-64.
6 C. T. Russell, "'Hear, O Israel! Jehovah Our God Is One --
Jehovah,'" Zion's Watch Tower, July 1882 (bound volume
reprints, Pittsburgh: Watch Tower, 1919), 369.
7 A. H. Macmillan, Faith on the March (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1957), 78-80.
8 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses (Brooklyn: Watch Tower,
1974), 165.
9 J. F. Rutherford, Millions Now Living Will Never Die
(Brooklyn: International Bible Students Association, 1920),
89-90.
10 Karl F. Klein, "'Jehovah Has Dealt Rewardingly with Me,'" The
Watchtower, 1 Oct. 1984, 24n.
11 In 1930 the sect's Golden Age magazine (p. 503) gave 1914 as
the date of Christ's invisible return, but without any
supporting argument. The new chronological formulas were first
published in 1943 in the book The Truth Shall Make You Free,
chapter 11, "The Count of Time."
12 JWs today commonly believe the Society never predicted "the end"
for 1975, but that some overzealous members mistakenly read this
into the message. The official prediction, however, is well
documented. See, for example, the article titled "Why Are You
Looking Forward to 1975?" in The Watchtower, 15 Aug. 1968,
494-501, which says: "Are we to assume from this study that the
battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and
the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by
then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh
thousand-year period of man's existence coincides with the
sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ....It may involve only
a difference of weeks or months, not years" (499). For
additional references, see my Index of Watchtower Errors
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990), 106-10.
13 John Dart, "Defectors Feel 'Witness' Wrath," Los Angeles
Times, 30 Jan. 1982, 4-5.
14 Richard N. Ostling, "Witness under Prosecution," 22 Feb. 1982,
66.
15 "Disfellowshipping -- how to view it," The Watchtower, 15
Sept. 1981, 24-26.
16 "Exposing the Devil's Subtle Designs," The Watchtower, 15 Jan.
1983, 22.
17 Raymond V. Franz, Crisis of Conscience (Atlanta: Commentary
Press, 1982) (1992 Edition), 40.
18 "Assistance for Governing Body Committees," The Watchtower, 15
Apr. 1992, 31.
19 "Expanded Activities During Christ's Presence," The
Watchtower, 1 May 1993, 15.
20 Ibid., 17.
21 Ibid.
22 This figure is based on the number of partakers at the annual JW
communion service, the "Memorial," as reported in the chart
cited above in The Watchtower, 1 Jan. 1993, 15. Since only
those who believed themselves to be among the anointed class
could take communion, 8,683 partook of the loaf and the cup
while the rest of the 11.5 million in attendance merely
observed.
23 "Expanded Activities During Christ's Presence," 11.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid., 12.
27 Ibid., 13.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 15.
30 Ibid., 13.
31 Ibid., 17.
32 Revelation: Its Grand Climax at Hand! (Brooklyn: Watch Tower,
1988), 132-33.
33 "Expanded Activities During Christ's Presence," 17.
34 Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI, Stanza 4, 1808, quoted in
John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown,
1955 ed.), 414b.
35 "Expanded Activities During Christ's Presence," 17.
36 Awake! 22 July 1993, is the most recent issue I consulted when
writing this article, but the statement has appeared on page
four of each issue since 8 March 1988.
37 Awake! 8 Oct. 1968, 13-14.
38 Man's Salvation Out of World Distress at Hand! (Brooklyn:
Watch Tower, 1975), 7. Also, The Truth that Leads to Eternal
Life (Brooklyn: Watch Tower, 1968), 95.
39 Franz, 100-103, 130, 209, 228, 342.
40 Raymond V. Franz, 73, 96, 344; In Search of Christian Freedom
(Atlanta: Commentary Press, 1991), 400.
41 Recent examples of unauthorized teachings and illustrations
finding their way into print to the embarrassment of the
Governing Body are found in my new book, Jehovah's Witness
Literature: A Critical Guide to Watchtower Publications (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993).

A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in
the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.

Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.

COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS:
This data file is the sole property of the Christian Research
Institute. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may
be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware,"
without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain
the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright 1994 by the Christian
Research Institute"). This data file may not be used without the
permission of the Christian Research Institute for resale or the
enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its
content with the exception of a few brief quotations not to
exceed more than 500 words.

If you desire to reproduce less than 500 words of this data file
for resale or the enhancement of any other product for resale,
please give the following source credit: Copyright 1994 by the
Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 7000, Rancho Santa
Margarita, CA 92688-7000.